Ayrshire book lovers are in for a treat until the end of October.
East Ayrshire’s Imprint Book Festival has launched with a host of events until Monday, October 31.
Over the years, Imprint has attracted a wealth of well-known authors and emerging writers and this year is no exception with writers, poets and illustrators including Alisdair C. Whyte, Darren “Loki” McGarvey, Graeme Macrae Burnet, and comic book artist Frank Quitely known for his collaborations on titles such as New X-Men and All-Star Superman.
The festival kicked-off with a poetry writing workshop with Sarah–Ellen MacDonald in Galston Library on Thursday.
Sarah-Ellen will be hosting a number of writing workshops through the festival including biography writing on Thursday, October 6 and fiction writing on Thursday, October 13.
On Wednesday, October 5 at the Dick Institute there is an afternoon of Gaelic songs, stories and place-names with award-winning singer and scholar Dr Alasdair C. Whyte.
Alasdair, who is from Salen in Mull, currently splits his time between Mull and Glasgow where he is a research fellow at the University of Glasgow. Alasdair has performed worldwide and recorded original and traditional Gaelic songs on numerous albums.
On National Poetry Day, Thursday, October 6, Colin McGuire will host an afternoon of poetry at the Dick Institute at 2pm.
Colin is an award-winning poet and performer known for his dynamic, engaging performances.
He has performed across Scotland and the UK, winning the Shore Poets Quiet Slam in 2014 and the Luminate Slam 2015 and a semi-finalist in the BBC Fringe Slam in 2013 and 2018. He won the Out:spoken award for the ‘film poetry’ category and best poetry overall in London in 2018.
Kilmarnock-born Graeme Macrae Burnet is In Conversation with Zoe Strachan on Thursday, October 6 as they discuss his prize winning crime fiction works.
His Bloody Project was shortlisted for the 2016 Man Booker prize, the LA Times Mystery Book of the Year and the European Crime Fiction prize and won the Saltire Prize for Fiction and the Vrij Nederland Thriller of the Year.
It has been variously described as “astonishing”, “fiendishly readable” and “spellbinding” and has been published in 20 languages.
His newest novel Case Study was published in October 2021 to wide critical acclaim. Hannah Kent called it “a novel of mind-bending brilliance.”
The ever-popular Sara Sheridan returns to Imprint and this year she is delving into history discussing the injustices of the Scottish witch trials.
Sarah is a writer and activist who is interested particularly in female history. She has written more than 20 books and in 2019 she was listed the David Hume Institute’s Book of the year with her book ‘Where Are The Women’.
She, along with fellow panellists Claire Mitchell and Zoe Vendetozzi, will discuss in-depth the historical, legal and social implications the witch trials had on women at the Dick Institute on Thursday, October 13 at 7pm. Tickets are £5.
For the full festival line up or to book visit eastayrshireleisure.com
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